Englewood Cliffs GOP chief urges Dems to drop vote challenge

The chairwoman of the Englewood Cliffs Republicans has called on two former Democratic councilwomen to drop their legal challenge to the results of the Nov. 5 election they lost to a pair of GOP challengers.

Carrol McMorrow, the GOP municipal chairwoman, complained about voters in the borough being served with subpoenas in what she described as "increasingly desperate attempts" by former council members Melanie Simon and Nora Seoane-Jobson to overturn the election's outcome.

McMorrow also objected to the Democrats using Gerald McCann, a former Jersey City mayor who served time in prison for bank fraud, to act as their "investigator." She said McCann has been seeking to interview people about their votes.

"In my opinion, Melanie Simon and Nora Jobson should be ashamed of themselves for engineering what can only be described as a political witch hunt intended to disenfranchise the Englewood Cliffs voters who tossed them out of office this November," McMorrow said in a statement.

Simon, Seoane-Jobson and their attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The election results showed that Republicans Zhi "Philip" Liang and Nunzio Consalvo defeated the two Democrats, with 62 votes separating all four candidates and with Simon trailing Consalvo by 37 votes. A recount failed to change that outcome.

Last month, Simon and Seoane-Jobson took Bergen County election officials to court, alleging that 112 voters received "undisclosed assistance" with their mail-in ballots. They also claimed other discrepancies, such as five votes being cast by people who did not live in the borough and two people who failed to sign their mail-in ballots.

A hearing on their challenge is scheduled for Jan. 28.

Meanwhile, Consalvo and Liang were sworn in at the council's reorganization meeting. McMorrow said there was an attempt during the meeting to serve them with subpoenas.

The election outcome leaves the council split 3-3, with Democratic Mayor Joseph Parisi Jr. casting any deciding votes. McMorrow called on the mayor to urge his fellow Democrats to drop their court challenge. But Parisi said Tuesday that he is staying out of the dispute.

"The process is going on. I'm not involved," he said. "I'm staying outside of that process. That's my job as mayor."